Sunday, June 10, 2012

This week's garden recipes: fennel slaw and peach sorbet

One of the best things about growing edible things is, well, eating them. Since I'm a glutton, I really get into the eating part of edible gardening (maybe I should rename this blog Gluttonous Gardening). Our summer harvest season is just getting started here in SoCal, and we're already feasting. Here are my two favorite recipes from the past week of harvesting and cooking (to respect copyright, I'm including links rather than the whole recipe):

Fennel Slaw with Mint Vinaigrette: I'm growing fennel for the first time ever this year, so when I realized the bulbs were fat and ready, I had no idea what to do with them. A little Googling turned up this recipe, which turned out wonderful! Even my "it's only worth eating if it comes from the drive-thru" husband and my "it's only worth eating if it has enough sugar to make an elephant diabetic" son liked it. Yes, for real: my 13-year-old liked a fennel salad. It really was delicious, especially after it had sat in the fridge for about a day. The extra time mellowed the flavors a bit.

Peach sorbet: Our peach tree is loaded this year, so I'll be having fun finding stuff to do with peaches (it's a tough job, but someone has to do it). We bought an old ice cream freezer at a yard sale a few years ago and (finally) tried it out. Neither of us has ever made ice cream before, but with a little pampering of the ancient ice cream maker, we succeeded in making the most wonderful sorbet I've ever eaten. This is a very simple recipe from the Food Network - basically peaches and sugar. The result tasted like a creamy, frozen version of a fresh peach. Absolutely divine.

Lest anyone out there think I'm a health nut, I've also had fun cooking up green beans with lots of bacon. Once I've perfected my beans-to-grease ratio, I'll post a recipe here.

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About the Authors

Rainy Day Gardening is brought to you by Meg and Janet, two librarians who like to play in the dirt.

Born and raised in Northern California, Janet started gardening when she was about 4 (mumble mumble years ago). After relocating to Portland, OR, she became a true rainy day gardener, gardening in the rainy Northwest for 14 years. In 2010, she picked up stakes (and other garden implements) and moved to Southern California, where rainy day gardening is a rarity. She now gardens on about 2/10 of an acre, growing vegetables, fruit, flowers, trees, shrubs, and a fine crop of weeds. Her interests include carnivorous plants, citrus, cottage gardening, her greenhouse, and anything edible.

Meg was born in South Carolina and raised all over the country (plus Japan!), but has been living in Seattle since 1992 and now considers it "home." She has only been gardening for about two years (just bought her first home) and is still in the learning stages. Her interests include bright colors, plants she can snack on while she's weeding, and learning how to keep things healthy and happy without using chemicals.